Piece Description

1955 saw the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and the beginning of school desegregation. They were unsafe and worrisome times, especially in big cities like St. Louis, where white neighborhoods experienced an influx of poor rural black folks. I went to a parochial school that welcomed African-American children, but my white parents were not so enlightened. This short-short story recounts a single moment in time. Valentine's Day, 1955. My mother had given me valentines only for the white children in my class and, at the age of seven, I faced the terrible dilemma of?what to do when a girl with a brown face reached out to get a card from me. Obey my mother or be kind to another child? In movies and books, children are often portrayed as wiser than adults. But in real life children are little mirrors of their parents, who in turn are often only playing out the larger issues of their society. It was a cruel moment. This production (narration + royalty-free music) was designed as a conversation starter for discussions about ethnic diversity and race relations. A video version with simple animations was screened at the 2003 United Nations Association Film Festival.